A new study by Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis found an underrepresentation of Latino and Black students at top-tier universities.
According to the study, almost 58% of students enrolled in highly selective universities come from families in the top quartile of the income distribution, while only 6% come from families in the bottom.
The study also showed that as of 2004, white students were three times as likely as Latino students to enroll in a selective college, and five times as likely to do so over Black students. Authors of the study infer that enrollment rates within these groups are not believed to have improved in the past eight years.
Sean Reardon, one of the study’s authors, explains that widening racial gaps in academic preparation do not influence the racial disparity in access to selective institutions because academic gaps have slowly been narrowing down within the last four decades.
“All else being equal, we would expect these narrowing achievement gaps to lead to a corresponding narrowing of the racial enrollment gaps in highly-selective colleges and university, but the data do not show such a trend,” the study details.
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